In 2008 during the presidential campaign primaries, a group called Citizens United aired a 90-minute long documentary about a Hilary Clinton who was a presidential hopeful then, according to the Federal Election Commission laws in the United States a political parties are supposed to make public the cost of their campaign and the source of the funds that are used to run the programs. The group, however, went to court to have the ruling against their disclosure overturned and the court maintained that they should comply and give the required information, two-years after the ruling through the U.S Supreme Court overruled the federal court ruling and the parties maintained their anonymity.

It is as a result of the above ruling that necessitated the forming of End Citizens United in March 1, 2015, a political action committee based in Washington D.C. End Citizens United runs a political campaign called the “Big Money 20” whose mission is to stop the influence of dark money being poured into campaigns with the aim of capturing special interests. The idea behind the forming of the group is to support a campaign finance reform efforts which would ensure that the leaders who are elected to office have a reform agenda and a track record and not the ones who are paid by organizations or parties for the purpose of advancing their special agenda. The huge sums of monies that flow into the accounts of the political leaders give them an unfair advantage over the other candidates and after being elected into office other than representing their constituents they represent the interest of the wealthy individuals who pumped money into their campaigns to help them win.

End Citizens United is using a two-step process to ensure that their agenda takes full effect; one is to support those individuals it considers to be development driven and whose purpose is to bring positive change to the society. And because political campaigns need money they raise it through grassroots fundraising in digital platforms. This feature by End Citizens United was used by President Barrack Obama when he was running for office in 2008 and turned out to be very effective the ancillary feature that made it a success is people feel a part of the leader they elect to office. Also, the digital platforms gave the opportunity for the constituents to give feedback about certain issues of interest and helped in the organizing of meetings and rallies.

We have a TON of exciting events coming up over the next few weeks! Here's another one: